Electronic commerce (e.g., e-commerce and e-business) has revolutionized business practices by providing an efficient, reliable and cost-effective medium for business transactions. This evolution has fueled a growing trend towards eliminating paper transactions and conducting a large volume of business electronically. Many businesses have already shifted paradigms and are conducting a substantial portion of their business via networks (e.g., the Internet, virtual private networks and/or intranets).
One advantage of conducting e-business is that it provides a business with a capability to efficiently transmit and receive information from essentially anywhere and at any time. The impact of such accessibility has provided business relationships with markets that were once unavailable, world-wide visibility, increased competition within markets, quality improvements, “true” market driven prices, increased buyer/seller choice, decreased operational costs through mitigating overhead such as paper products, and diminished paper waste.
The robustness of e-business continues to progress with technological advances in the electrical/electronic and software fields. Such advances provide improved communication devices and improved user-friendly applications. In addition, the availability and affordability of computerized systems and e-business software that can be executed thereon facilitates a growing movement towards selling and purchasing goods via e-business. From the foregoing advances and trends, it has become foreseeable that the near future will demand business transactions to be conducted via e-business in order to compete within a business market.
Many e-business system(s) employ business rule(s) to facilitate transaction(s). Business rule(s) can vary from basic (e.g., transaction greater than $10) to very complex.